The Next Morning
by TardisIsTheOnlyWayToTravel
Summary: PostDH, so you have been warned! Harry does something a bit stupid while out drinking with Ron and Neville. The next morning an angry Ginny brings it to his attention. Oneshot. Complete.


**Title: The Next Morning**

**Author: TardisIsTheOnlyWaytoTravel**

**Pairings: Harry/Ginny**

**Story Summary:** **Post-DH, so you have been warned! Harry goes out drinking one evening with Ron and Neville and does something rather stupid. The next morning he finds out what he did while under the influence. Ginny is not very happy about it.**

**Setting: Post-**_**Deathly Hallows**_**. A few years before Harry's kids start school, when Lily is round about three or so, perhaps a little older.**

**Author notes: **

_I was lying in bed, unable to sleep, when this came to me out of nowhere… and more and more kept coming the more I thought about it._

_Edit Thanks to _**daydreaming redhead **_for picking up a careless error. It's been fixed._

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**THE NEXT MORNING**

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"HARRY JAMES POTTER!"

The irate voice rang through his head like a gong and Harry's eyes shot open only to squeeze shut again as the light hit them.

"Ooh…" he moaned, head still ringing. Tentatively he squinched open one eyes a little to take a second, better look at his wife. Yep. She still looked angry.

"Listen, Ginny," he croaked pleadingly, "I didn't mean to get home so late, honest, but Ron…"

"_That_ we will talk about later." Ginny was a pillar of grim unyielding anger. "I am talking about this."

She grabbed Harry's arm and bent it back towards his face, and he found himself staring at the upside-down Dark Mark tattooed on the inside of his arm.

To be sure, it was purple, but was a Dark Mark nonetheless. Harry looked beyond it at the implacable face of his wife. He waited for further explosion.

-

-

"HARRY JAMES POTTER!"

Three heads tilted to look up at the ceiling as their mother's voice came through even louder than before.

"Daddy in trouble," Lily said sagely, and went back to eating breakfast.

"What d'you reckon he did this time?" James wondered.

"I don't know." Albus stared at the ceiling, where the faint sounds of someone being soundly berated came through. "But it sure must have been bad."

-

-

Harry winced with post-intoxicated pain as his wife yelled again. He touched his temples tenderly.

"Aargh."

"What in Merlin's name possessed you?" Ginny demanded, beginning to swell in a way that reminded Harry forcibly of his mother-in-law. "Do you have no sense whatsoever?"

Harry tried to think back to last night despite the alcoholic haze that had possessed him at the time. He could faintly remember Neville mentioning something about a tattoo parlour, and then Ron mentioning that he'd always wanted a Cannons tattoo across his forehead which suddenly seemed like a good idea.

Harry's lips twitched. If Ron had indeed carried out his plan, then he'd be in even worse trouble than Harry was. But for the life of him Harry couldn't think how he came to have a brilliant purple Dark Mark on his arm.

Ginny saw the twitch and smacked him.

"How could you Harry?" she said angrily. "Of all the things you could possibly have tattooed, _not_ that I approved of that at all, you choose the symbol of what killed half the people you cared about and ruined your life!" She glared with utter scorn. "How could that possibly seem like a good idea? I've never been more ashamed of you!"

-

-

"I HAVE A PERFECT RIGHT TO TATTOO A DARK MARK ACROSS MY _FOREHEAD_ IF I WANT!"

Albus and James exchanged looks.

"Oh."

"That'd do it," James agreed.

"But why a Dark Mark, though?" the area between Albus's eyebrows wrinkled, "I mean, it's not exactly the kind of thing to show off, is it?"

James suddenly sniggered.

"He went off with Uncle Ron and Mr Longbottom last night," he pointed out. "D'you think _they_ got tattoos too?"

"I bet Uncle Ron got something Cannons tattooed," Albus said with certainty. James sniggered again.

"Auntie Hermione is going to kill him," he snickered. Albus nodded in agreement.

"Silly," Lily remarked. She didn't actually speak very well herself yet, but had a grasp of the conversations that went on around her was well beyond her capabilities of speech. 'Tattoo' might not have been a word that she would use, but she knew what it meant. Albus suspected that she did it on purpose so that she could eavesdrop without people realising that she knew what they were talking about. She spent far too much time with Uncle George.

He looked up again as more shouting came through. Lily finished her breakfast, looked up, sighed, and climbed down from her chair.

"Go fix," she announced with purpose, and began climbing up the stairs.

James and Albus exchanged raised eyebrows, and Albus got up to follow his sister's slow progress. James stayed behind to finish eating.

-

-

Harry and Ginny were in their bedroom. Harry looked terrible – he was pale and his eyes bloodshot – but was a tower of rigid and vibrating anger. His eyes almost glowed as he simply stared at his wife as she yelled at him.

Lily marched over and stood in the doorway.

"STOP SHOUTING, MUMMY!" she hollered.

Harry and Ginny's head swung round in surprise.

Hands on hips, Lily glared at them.

"Not helping," she said distinctly, "all done now," and shaking a reprimanding finger at them stomped back downstairs again.

Harry's eyebrows were raised and his mobile face clearly showed his desire to laugh. Ginny was just staring at the spot where her daughter had been.

"She's sort of got a point, actually," Albus offered. His parents eyes immediately swung to him. "Erm, I mean, you can't exactly take back a tattoo, and um, yelling about it isn't going to help." Uncomfortably Albus traces patterns on the carpet with the toe of his shoe and looked up, green eyes frank. "And anyway, Mum, Dad's kind of got a point too, even if you're upset."

Albus fled before his mother could scarify him.

-

-

Harry turned back to Ginny as the sound of Albus clattering down the stairs came to them, rubbing his eyes. Ginny turned to see him watching her with a wry, amused, understanding smile. Ginny knew that smile.

"Out with it," she said.

Harry knew her well enough to know what she meant.

"I'm just thinking how much Hermione must be yelling at Ron if he tattooed 'Chudley Cannons' across his forehead like he was going to," he explained.

Ginny stared, and tried to hold onto her anger, but the peal of laughter came bubbling out until she was bent double at the image of Ron cringing and cowering away from his furious wife, 'Chudley Cannons' emblazoned across his forehead. The image was just too much.

Finally Ginny wiped her streaming eyes and straightened, pushing away Harry who had supported her during her laughing fit.

"All right," she told him, grinning, "but you still have to live with it."

She loved the way the relief faded off his face as he realised he was going to have to spend the rest of his life explaining why he had a Dark Mark on his arm, albeit a purple one.

**oo o0o oo**

Albus looked up as the fireplace flared green and grinned as a moment later a gloomy Uncle Ron stepped out.

"Dad, Uncle Ron's here!" he called.

Harry stepped into the living room and gave a shout of laughter. There stood Ron, looking sheepish and glum, 'THE CANNONS ROCK' emblazoned across his forehead in bright red letters. Someone had hexed him so that across his nose and cheeks equally bright letters read 'I AM AN IMBECILE.'

Ron slouched back into a chair and took the bottle of Firewhisky and the glass Harry conjured for him.

"Thanks," he said, pouring himself a glass and tossing it back.

Harry grinned and settled into the chair opposite. He glanced at Albus.

"How about you go see what James is doing," he suggested.

"You just want to get rid of me," Albus grumbled, but he wandered out into the kitchen.

"Dad's in talking to Uncle Ron," he said to Lily as he passed. Her face brightened and she climbed down from her chair and went into the living room, no doubt to happily eavesdrop and pretend she didn't understand a word.

-

-

"Hermione flip?" Harry asked Ron as Lily wandered in and wrapped her arms around his leg. Absently he pulled her up onto his lap where she sat contently.

"Yeah."

-

_/flashback/_

_Ron ducked as the plate impacted above his head. Hermione, eyes flashing, reached for another._

"_You stupid!" SMASH! "Bleeding!" SMASH! "IDIOT!" SMASH!_

_Ron peered under his arms to see that Hermione had momentarily stopped fling crockery and was instead glaring at him._

"_I can't believe you did that!" Hermione said furiously. "Have you momentarily lost what little brain you had?"_

_As Hermione went on Ron saw Rose and Hugo grinning at him and wondered if he'd found his own special hell._

_/end flashback/_

_-_

"…and Rose and Hugo just sat there laughing," Ron finished gloomily. Harry resisted the urge to grin and instead nodded sympathetically.

"Sounds awful, mate."

"I heard you were even more than an idiot than Harry," Ginny remarked as she walked through with one of James' shirts. "Lily, stop eavesdropping on your father's conversation."

Lily stared innocently as though she didn't understand what her mother had just said. Harry dismissed it, knowing Lily didn't have a good enough grasp of language to understand what they were talking about.

Ron and Harry talked for a bit for until with a _whoosh_ Hermione stepped out of the fireplace. She glanced around for Ron.

"Oh Ron, I'm so sorry," she said, big brown eyes remorseful, "I just lost my temper. I didn't really mean it. Can you forgive me?"

Ron stood up and allowed Hermione to step into his arms.

"If you can forgive me for being thick enough to get a tattoo," he assured her honestly.

Lily tugged on Hermione's robes impatiently,

"Un Ermney! Un Ermney!" she demanded.

Hermione smiled and picked her up, making the little girl squeal in delight.

"How's my favourite niece?" Hermione asked, tickling her. Lily giggled.

"Daddy dumb," she informed her aunt. Hermione raised an eyebrow.

"Oh? Where did you get a tattoo?"

Harry sighed and pulled up his sleeve, waiting for the laughs.

Ron guffawed, and Hermione bit back a smile.

"Oh, Harry," she said, trying to look stern but failing miserably. "A purple Dark Mark?"

"It's brilliant!" Ron choked. "Bloomin' wonderful!"

Hermione turned to frown at him, but seemed to remember something.

"Oh!" She dived into her handbag and came out with several sheets of notepaper. "I contacted St Mungo's, they said it'll be difficult, but they should be able to remove the tattoos completely." She bestowed a forgiving smile on Ron. "So it doesn't really matter after all."

"Hmph," Ginny grumbled, walking back through to the kitchen.

"I don't know," Harry mused thoughtfully, "it's rather a talking point, don't you think?"

"Maybe but I'm bloody getting rid of mine," Ron said emphatically.

Ginny glared warningly.

"Harry…"

Out in the kitchen Lily paused in her colouring in.

"Daddy in trouble," she said knowledgeably.

James sniggered.


End file.
